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June 16, I860.] The Leader and ^atxirday...
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THE ABODE OF LOVE. It was Horace, we bei...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Pauallels Of Mismanagement. Som E Men Ha...
says the author of the " Night Thoughts ; " but the wheel , when it isdoin 0 " its duty as a wheel , makes , at the same time , its revolutions and its ° protrress—a union of movements which , in the base of onr social and political wheel , Aye are often sadly disposed to doubt . It is difficult to forbear a shiile when Goldsmith or JoHNSON ^ we will vouch that it is one of them , though just now we forget whichcompares the stationary bird ' s nest with the ship , which is eternally improving;—yes , perhaps the same ship , dubiously , and at very great expense , at Chatham , cut , and sliced , and extended , and abbreviated . The latter is what we prefer to do with quotations , but one we shall s ^ ive in extenso , for it has dictated the present article , of which it will form , a considerable part . It may make us despair , or ply the axe more manfully than ever at the root of the tree of corruption . Sheridan loquitur ; date March 15 th , 18 O 4 .
; " It is known that out of the 120 gun-boats which the right honourable gentleman had in commission at the close of the last war , there were scarcely any retained as at all useful , and that sixty-two of them . , which were purchased from contractors , were much the worst . Enough lias been ssiid by the honourable baronet of the kind of vessels which contractors generally built j and without referring-to the ships of the line , of which the honourable baronet takes notice in proof of the badness of their materials and the inferiority of their workmanship , I shall only remark on these gunboats . I do not , indeed , like to dwell on the misconduct of inferior officers in any department . I do not wish to hear of such persons in this house . We should always look to the heads of those departs ments as the persons answerable to us . The navy board may be
suspected of having played into the hands of the contractors during the last war , and perhaps to that was owing the great inferiority of the right honourable gentleman ' s gun-boats— -an inferiority which was certainly very glaring , for but of the J 20 , 87 were sold after advertisement for almost nothing ; some which could not be disposed of were retained , and six were sent to Jersey , which were found so utterly useless , that Captain D'Auvergne knew not what to do with them . . . . . Has the honourable gentleman observed the frauds exposed in the second report—the block and coopers ' contracts , where £ 2 , 000 ' "have been paid for work proved not to he worth £ 200 ? . . . . . What a melancholy expression that ul those yards , where there were 3 , 200 men employed , nothing more
than -the repair of ships could be done . They could only finish m thcsejvairds t \ venty-foiir sail of the line , fifteen frigates , and sonie few sloops , in the course ~ bf twenty years , although it is -known that forty-five shipwrights can build a ' seventy-four' in one year . As ¦ there arc 3 , 200 shipwrights in those yards , and the expense could not be less , in twenty years , than £ 4 , 100 , 000 , a ' slim equal to the building * of the whole navy of-Eiiglahd , it follows , of course , that it is bad policy to continue the . maintenance of those dockyards . . . I assert , and am prepared to maintain the assertion , that abuse pervades every department of the system . Does the right honourable gentleman know of the frauds which the commissioners have found to have been conrimtted in every article with which these yards are furnished ? ' & c . , ¦ : ¦ ...
Tliese places are"Gibraltar-forts , of immovable and corrupt routine . Energetic and patriotic officers have since nearly broken their hearts , and expended all their energies in trying to overcome the surd dead resistance of their interested and vicious system ; and so we are taYed ^ ranr'greTTeTaHon ^ o ^ cneiiation ~ iMHHeiH } r / -ully- with-HkLeg-islature which cannot or will not defend us . "Oh , foolish Israel , never warnedof ill [ effectively ] , Still the same baits , and circumvented still . " Many of the calamitous blunders in connection with the Crimean campaign were mere echoes , confirmatory of a striking expression of MAKLUOnoUGir's in one of his letters to Gonoi / i'inx , Sept . 2 nd , 1702 , alluding to our commissariat— " England ,, that is famous for negligence . "
__ _ _ .... ... , , Our returning soldiers have been recently poisoned with bad provisions . An historian of the reign of Queen An m : says :- "We lost many of our seamen , who , as was said , were poisoned by ill food ; and though great complaints were made of the victuallers "—precisely as at present , " yet there was not such care taken to look into it as a matter of such eon sequence deserved . " ( 1703 . ) Of course not ; but wo are forgetting our Crimean echoes . Wo find in a speech of Fox ' s , in . 1770 : ~ " Had not all intelligence been destroyed by an invisible cabinet influence , could it ever have happened Hint there should ever hnvo been , in one of our Intelycapttired islands , ono hundred and fifty pieces of ordnance and only forty men to work them ? Could there have been in ono place cannon without balls : nnd , in another , balls without cannon P "
Let us take Siiehidax again : April 21 st , 170 ( 5 , whqn he remon-Rtrates on the " deplorable condition of the troops in consequence of excessive fatigue . . their want of proper clothing " , and particularly their want of shoes . " Then , an now , wo suppose contractors had been pocketing tho money which ought to hnvo contributed to tlio comfort and efficiency of tlio troops . Agnin , in tho sumo speech : " Tho hospitals in Mnrtinico were crowded with * British officers nnd soldier . * , who wereriot only in want of mtdicines , biit even banclages to dvc *< 8 tllo wounds . "
Hear Shkkipan ngnin , Feb . 10 th , 1800 : — " It hns been positively assorted , that . the avmy was left without bugrgHgo-wnggonfi ; that they were first cheered with tho hope that certain hhips in Right contained these wnggon p ,. and that afterwards their hopes were damped on being told that tho waggons wero in fiomo ship , but the wheels wore in others . Was it truo that such ignorance prevailed of tho roads in Holland , that the wiiggous whidi were afterwards employed proved useless !*"
Fox , in 1801 ( we cannot refer to the day ) , in his speech on the State of the Nation : —^ " Ten thousand Irish militia were to come to England , and ten thousand English to go to Ireland . Some of the troops wanted their new coats , some their arms . " No one can say that , in these points , we have degenerated , from onr ancestors . It is the same in the matter of general preparation . Enormous sums of money are puid for the defence of the country , yet , were it not for the patriotism and private expenditure of the volunteers , all parties are obliged to admit , that we should be but pooi'ly provided in case of foreign invasion;—in other words , in spite of an income-tax , we are obliged for our safety and honour sake to tax ourselves doubly . We are on the very edge of danger before Government bestirs itself : such has always been our wont .
A member of the administration , and a man of no desponding temper , Henky Fox , in his confidential letters at this period ( 1745 ) , admits and deplores the state of public feeling . " England , " Wade says , " I believe , is for the first comer ; and if you can tell whether the 6 , 000 Dutch and the ten battalions of English , or 5 , 000 French or Spaniards will be here first , you know our fate . The French are not come , God be thanked ! but had 5 , 000 landed on any part of the island a week ago , I verily believe the entire conquest would not have cost them a battle . " Again , take the first Pitt , in 1777 , in his speech on the Address ( Mahon ' s History , chap , xxviii . ) : — " My lords , what is the condition of your formidable and inveterate enemies ? . . They have a formidable navy * ' I say , my lords , their intentions are hostile . What have you to oppose to them ? Not 5 , 000 men in this island , not more in Ireland . Without an immediate restoration of tranquillity , this nation is ruined , " & c .
We are certainly better off , rather , than when Chatham made this appeal ; but still the habit of the nation , or rather of its Governments , remains pretty much the ' same . If England has been saved , it has been owing to Providence , to the energy of the people when called out by necessity , and to , here and there , an honest and business-like man in our " administration . Time and taxation cannot be said to have taught us many lessons of providence or economy . A more democratic Government than those which , have hitherto managed our business for- " us , might possibly be as careless , as corrupt , and more ignorant ; but in the articles of thrift , vigilance , and purity , the majority- of those who have hitherto held the reins ceilainlv have had but little to boast of .
June 16, I860.] The Leader And ^Atxirday...
June 16 , I 860 . ] The Leader and ^ atxirday AnalystP 565
The Abode Of Love. It Was Horace, We Bei...
THE ABODE OF LOVE . It was Horace , we beiieve , "Tvbo reinarked . th . afcT . io man could Ire completely happy who . was liable to a cold in the head . So it lv . ay be- ? rffirmed that . " the- possessor of property , or wealth , cannot account himself supremely blest , while he is subject to the dispensation of the Court of Chancery . It seems to be as easy for the man or woman of property to escape Chancery process , as for humanity in general to . avoid the defluxus vasce . Ewingman will draw up " reckless conveyances , and go out in the rain without his umbrella . Hut who would have thought that the Abode of Love would ever get into Chancery ? Who would have thought that the Lobp High CiiAXCErxou ' would . ever get the head of Mr . Pkince under his arm—Piunce , the perfect man , the Apostle of universal—lf > ve , ~ brolhwhor > f ) , flnd a .. cojiyn . Pi ) purse , kept and dispensed by Apostle Piunce himself ! Yet so it is . If the course of love has * run smoothly in the Agapemone , its peace at least has been rudely broken ; and here are the relatives of Miss Louisa Jane NoTxnxTE disputing the right of Apostle Pkince to a legacy left to him by the said Miss Louisa . Tank Nottiuge , on the ground that the said Miss Louisa . Jane Nottidge was not in possession of her sound senses at the time she made the will . It is possible that in this case Mr . ¦ Piunce will have the law on his side . The deceased lady had been placed in a lunatic asylum by her relatives , but got out again on establishing her sanity . So far it can be proved that Miss Nottidge has been pronounced a sane person by competent authority . Ordinary judges , however , who arc not trammelled with professional competency , mny take another view ot the matter , when they have boon favoured with a glimpse ot tho internal economy of tho Abotle ot Love , whero Miss Norrinr . E resided under the spiritual and temporal caro of Apostle Piunce . PiiixcE , it appears , was-originally a clergyman of the Church ot England , but had tho misfortune twico to be deprived ot Ins license- — on the first occasion by tho Bishop of Bath and Wwr . i . 9 , on tho second by the Bishop of Ei / v . Whether , it was that Mr . Puince wns too good or too bad for the Establishniont wo are not awaro ; but he irrevocably lost his . flock . A short time after this , ho set up a chapel of his own in tho congenial soil of Brighton , uud . called it tho Chapel of Aduixam . Here ho first began to discover Unit ho had a mission to perform , nnd he set himsolfto perform it accordingly . Ho manii' -ed to attract a select audience of hidies of a certain age , and his new doctrineof love and community of temporal interests became very popular with tho lender sex ; ao popular , indeed , that four sistors ot tho name of Norn doe , all possuHsiiig considerable property , were found willing to throw their -wealth , or a . p > r . tiun . ot their wealth , into a common block , to unuUe Mr . Tj . HX < ' !• : U > fo \ ind nn Abode ot Love , where they could ' all resiido together in undisturbed hannony . Mr l » ia ' xi : E at o ' noo selected Soinorsetshiro for tho locality of this now tciiiple , niicl afniightwny laid out the money of the Misses 1-iOT . Tiwon in i ) urcha « ing a propovty of lour hundred acres . To this place , when tho Abodo was reiulv , Mr . Piunce , issuing Iron , his cave ot Amu ^ M . at Brighton , mndu . ' lii » way with the ipur wistors undor his protecting wingy . And q ' uitu a iiingnincent place tho Abodo hccuih to be . There is u Imndaomo lioune , luuidsomcly funiwlied ; there Jiro yurdens ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16061860/page/9/
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